Casey and Ashley - Research Paper 331

Running head: ESL STUDENTS AND CLASSROOM CLIMATE 1

The Effect of ESL Students on Classroom Climate and Learning

Ashley Jefferson and Casey Paletta

University of Wisconsin - La Crosse

ESL STUDENTS AND CLASSROOM CLIMATE 2

Abstract

Past research has not explored the classmates’ attitudes of ESL students’ process of learning in an English

speaking classroom. We focused on how classroom climate affects the attitudes and cognitive scores for 19

college students. The independent variables were having an ESL student present and a non-ESL student

present. The dependent variables being measured in this study were attitudes and mood of classmates as well

as recall ability. The results found trends that went in our predicted direction, which consisted of post-test

mood ratings being more negative and lower recall scores in the perceived ESL condition. We also found

results that went against our predicted direction, such as the physiological cues of stress and annoyance were

higher, as well as more negative comments were stated in the non-ESL condition. Internal validity was a

limitation due to our small sample size that consisted mostly of young adult female university students.


The Effect of ESL Students on Classroom Climate and Learning

In today’s generation, more and more schools have a higher diverse student body which also includes a

diversity of languages. Many of these children speak more than one language and often times struggle in

school because they do not understand fully what is being said in the classroom. ESL (English as a Second

Language) is a term used to describe students whose first language is something other than English. ESL

children face difficulties in the classroom not only because of language barriers, but also because of their status

as minority group members.

Scherbaum, Blanshetyn, Marshall-Wolp, McCue, and Strauss (2011) focused on the impact of

stereotype threat on minority group students testing behavior. Participants were randomly assigned to read

either a description of the study that aroused a stereotype threat or one that avoided activating a threat

response. Participants then took a verbal test from a section in a reading comprehension test online for fourth

graders. The results showed that minority students in the stereotype threat condition showed poorer test taking

behaviors and test performance. However, in regards to response time and the changing of answers from

correct to incorrect answers, the stereotype threat did not affect their scores. Based on their results it appears

that if stereotype threat is aroused in the classroom, minority students will have more troubles in a test-taking

environment.

ESL students may experience stereotyping in the classroom simply because they speak English with an

accent. Weyent (2007) had college students listen to an audio recording spoken by either a woman with no

accent or a woman with an accent. Afterward, the students were instructed to take the perspective of the non-

native speaker, they scored her in ability and accomplishment. This research supported the idea that people

hold negative stereotypes towards non-native English speakers, but that certain techniques can be used to

decrease these beliefs.


The negative stereotypes of ESL students and stereotype threat experienced by ESL students could

negatively impact the classroom climate in a mixed ESL and non-ESL classroom. According to Ambrose et al.

(2010) “climate we mean the intellectual, social, emotional, and physical environments in which our students

learn. Climate is determined by a constellation of interacting factors that include faculty - student interaction,

the tone instructors set, instances of stereotyping or tokenism, the course demographics (for example, relative

size of racial and other social groups enrolled in the course), student - student interaction, and the range of

perspectives represented in the course content and materials.” (p. 170). LeClair, Doll, Osborn, and Jones

(2009) studied ESL and non-ESL students’ perceptions of their classroom climate. Students answered

anonymous surveys about their perceived classroom climate, and their perceptions on educational differences

within the classroom. Results in the study indicated that ESL students and non-ESL students viewed their

classrooms differently. The ESL students in the classroom rated their levels of academic success lower than

their non-ESL classmates. Secondly, ESL students rated their class as more organized and their classmates as

more apt to following the rules. Lastly, both groups rated their relationships with classmates, and teachers with

a high-perceived level of happiness.

Although LeClair et al. (2009) focused on understanding the differences in classroom climate

perception of ESL and non-ESL students. There is a gap that has not been examined in past research which is

whether non-ESL students’ attitudes about classroom climate change depending on whether ESL students are

present in the classroom. Our present study focused on how the presence of ESL in an English speaking class

can affect the classroom climate as well as learning of non-ESL students. For our study, we gathered a group of

student’s self-report mood and attitudes before and after an orally given memory test. One group had a non-

ESL confederate student that interrupted with relevant questions. Students were evaluated from their self-

reports, observations of mood and attitude changes, their final evaluation of the study and their performance on

the memory test. Based on the existence of negative stereotypes of ESL students (Weygent, 2007) we believed


that the presence of an ESL student would cause a negative mood and attitude and have a negative effect on

learning for the non-ESL students.

Method

Participants

In this study, participants were 19 male and female college students (Mage = 18.80 years, SD = 1.03,

53% of the data was not reported) from a mid-sized university in the Midwest. Participants received

compensation of extra credit in their class for completing this study. There were 14 females, and 5 male

participants in this study, and participants racial background was comprised of 17 Caucasian students, 1

African American student, and 1 student identified as other. Participants were asked about their language

skills, 1 participant stated they spoke another language at school, 1 participant stated they spoke another

language at home, 9 participants stated they do not speak another language but are currently learning one, and

8 participants stated they do not speak and are not learning another language.

Materials and Procedure

This study is a one-way between subjects design. The independent variables were the presence or

absence of an ESL students in a classroom setting. The dependent variables being measured in this study were

the attitudes and mood of classmates as well as recall ability. Observational physiological cues for stress and

frustration were recorded upon occurrence throughout the study.

Participants signed up for one of twelve experimental sessions. The sessions were run in a classroom

setting. Participants gave informed consent and then were given instructions for the questionnaire and recall

test before conducting the experiment. Participants were then given a packet which included; 1) pre-self report

questionnaire, 2) memory recall test, 3) post-self report and commentary questionnaire. Participants then were


instructed to fill out the appropriate pages in conjunction with the corresponding portion of the experiment.

Once completed with each portion, participants were told to not turn the page until further instruction.

The pre-self report questionnaire included questions on (rate mood, stress level, antecedent events,

demographics). After completion of the pre-self report portion of the packet participants were instructed to

listen to a short story orally given test by the experimenters. During the story, a confederate (either a perceived

ESL student or a perceived non-ESL student) was instructed to interrupt at set intervals with scripted, relevant

questions (Could you repeat that? Can you slow down?) throughout the completion of the story. The presence

of an ESL or non-ESL confederate was arbitrarily assigned based on the session participants signed up for.

Afterward, participants were asked to open their packets to the recall memory test which was a short story

followed by seven orally administered multiple choice questions about the details within the story. The

participants were asked to complete it to the best of their ability as well as complete the final self-report

evaluation and commentary portion in which included a personal rate of mood, stress level, predicted

performance, general feedback, and decoy questions.

Throughout the entire implementation of the study, one of the experimenters recorded the physiological

cues for stress and frustration unbeknownst to the participants. There was a chart with a designated space

coordinated to the classroom seating arrangements that the experimenter used to measure the behaviors. The

boxes were numbered in association with the number on each participants test packet in order to relate them to

their mood ratings, comments and overall test scores. Following an interview with Dr. McKelley (2013) about

the physiological cues for stress and frustration, the physiological cues for stress and frustration were divided

into 4 sections; face (scowling, lip curl, tightening/change of facial expression), eye (rolling, staring), vocal

(sighing, exhale, verbal comment/question), and body (head/neck roll, posture shifts, shrugging, hand/foot

tapping). Participants were first watched for any baseline activity like foot twitches or hand tapping while the

instructions were given. Throughout the story and recall test, they were then given a tally mark next to the


appropriate cue when the behavior occurred in their corresponding box. After all the studies were done, the

tally scores were added together for each participant. Every score was reviewed and edited so that only scores

of 5 or more tallies were used in the data because it was assumed that all participants would look at the

confederate around 4 times in accordance to each question they were scripted to ask.

Once the packets were completed and collected, the experiments gave an oral debriefing of the study.

Total time to complete this study took approximately 15 minutes.

An independent samples t-test revealed no significant difference between a perceived ESL student

condition and a perceived non-ESL student condition on the stress level, t(17) = -.30, p = .768, pre-test positive

mood ratings, t(17) = .934, p = .332, and pre-test negative mood ratings, t(17) = -.999, p = .332. Once the

packets were completed and collected, the experimenters finished with an oral debriefing of the study.

Results

The results of a independent samples t-test showed that there was a significant effect of the perceived

ESL student and the perceived non-ESL student on post-test negative mood ratings, t(17) = -2.09, p = .052.

Participants in the condition with the perceived non-ESL student had a lower trend of post-test negative mood

ratings (M = 0.78, SD = 0.97) than participants in the condition with the perceived ESL student (M = 2.00, SD

= 1.49). There was no significant effect of the perceived ESL student and the perceived non-ESL student on

post-test positive mood ratings, t(17) = .47, p = .644. On average, there was only slightly higher ratings for

perceived non-ESL student condition on post-test positive mood ratings (M = 1.78, SD =1.09) than the

perceived ESL student condition on post-test positive mood ratings (M = 1.50, SD = 1.43).

There was a trend but no significant difference in scores of the physiological cues for stress, t(17) =

1.13, p = .274, where the perceived non-ESL student condition had higher scores (M = 3.56, SD = 2.70) than

the perceived ESL student condition (M = 2.20, SD = 2.53). There was no significant difference for negative

comments, t(17) = 1.12, p = .277, however there was a trend where more negative comments were expressed in


perceived non-ESL student condition (M = 0.44, SD = 0.53) than the perceived ESL student condition (M =

0.20, SD = 0.42). Lastly, there was no significant difference in recall scores, t(17) = .946, p = .357, but there

was a trend showing the perceived non-ESL student condition had higher scores (M = 0.33, SD = 0.71) than the

perceived ESL student condition (M = 0.10, SD = 0.32).

Discussion

The results from this study did not fully support either of our hypotheses. We believed that the presence

of an ESL student would cause a negative mood and attitude adjustment as well as a negative effect on learning

in the classroom climate. Unlike the results from Weyant (2007), we found there was no significant difference

in attitudes between the perceived non-ESL student condition and the perceived ESL student condition. The

results found a few trends, however, that went in our predicted direction; these consisted of post-test mood

ratings being more negative in the perceived ESL student condition and recall scores were slightly lower in the

perceived ESL student condition as well. We also found results that went against our predicted direction such

as; the physiological cues of stress and annoyance were higher in the perceived non-ESL student condition, as

well as more negative comments were stated in the perceived non-ESL student condition.

Our results did not entirely support our hypothesis that learning would be affected by the presence of a

perceived ESL student was found in the study by Scherbaum et al. (2011). The difference in results could be

due to the small sample size used in the study. If given more participants, the study might have been a better

representation of the population in order to produce more accurate results.

A limitation to this study would be the internal validity due to our small sample size that consisted

mostly of young adult female undergraduate students. To help increase generalizability in future replications of

this study research should include a larger sample incorporating equal numbers of both male and female

participants, and perform a pre-test to place the participants in equal groups. Future studies could also look at

difference in male versus female confederates.


Another limitation of the study was that we were not able to assess inter-rater reliability because only

one of the researchers recorded physiological signs of stress while the other performed the orally given test,

consent, and debriefing. Therefore, there was no comparison or percent agreement between raters and no way

to determine how consistently the physiological cues were measured.

Based on the trends that we found, there are complex interactions throughout the classroom. The

research shows that the participants in the perceived non-ESL student condition felt potentially more

comfortable making critical comments and expressing their emotions more openly without filtering annoyance

or agitation. Whereas, in the perceived ESL student condition, there was a stronger effect on the subconscious

processing because their cognitive scores were lower and their mood ratings were more negative despite the

lack of conscious expression of annoyance and agitation like in the other condition. We can project that with

the presence of perceived ESL student, participants are potentially aware of their feelings and actions, but try

to filter or possibly conceal them more due to some kind of conscious awareness of stereotype threat. This

could then cause a bigger distraction in the learning environment. The knowledge of these tends could help

students and teachers better evaluate themselves in multilingual classrooms in order to improve positive

attitudes and learning for the future.


References

Ambrose, S., Bridges, M., DiPietro, M., Lovett, M., & Norman, M. (2010). How learning works. 7

research-based principles for smart teaching, Retrieved from

http://blog.rgaiacs.com:862/_downloads/how_learning_works.pdf

LeClair, C., Doll, B., Osborn, A., & Jones, K. (2009). English language learners' and non-English

language learners' perceptions of the classroom environment. Psychology in The Schools,

46(6), 568-577.

McKelley, R. (2013, October 25). Interview by A Jefferson. Physiological cues for stress and annoyance.

Scherbaum, C. A., Blanshetyn, V., Marshall-Wolp, E., McCue, E., & Strauss, R. (2011).

Examining the effects of stereotype threat on test-taking behaviors. Social Psychology of

Education, 14(3), 361-375.

Weyant, J. M. (2007). Perspective taking as a means of reducing negative stereotyping of

individuals who speak English as a second language. Journal of Applied Social Psychology, 37(4), 703-

716.


Figure 1. Negative mood measurements of participants in each condition following the orally administered

memory recall test. Bars represent +/- one standard error.

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Casey and Ashley - Research Paper 331